Three Wishes

Thanks to my betas Quiller and Lynn for their tireless hard work and enthusiasm. Thanks also to LMC for her input. Despite all this help I am still capable of screwing up so any remaining mistakes are mine, all mine.

Chapter 1: The Rescue

Scott looked down at the little girl he had just rescued. He had saved so many people's lives in the last couple of years that their faces just blended together in his mind and he rarely took notice of their distinguishing features anymore. This was especially true of children. To him they were just short, noisy, messy creatures.

This girl was different. She was captivating, mesmerising and as exquisite as an angel. Scott couldn't seem to take his eyes off her. She was only about three years old and yet she spoke as though she were several years older.

"Thank you for rescuing me and my family, Mr. International Rescue man. We would have died if you had not got us so quickly out of the broken-down building."

"That's okay," replied Scott, "That's what we do."

"You are a good man. You do things and you don't expect people to give you anything back. You're different and nice. I want to give you something special. My gift to you is three wishes…."

Scott smiled in amusement at the child but his smile turned to puzzlement. The girl's eyes seemed so bright – an almost luminous blue. They were drawing him in. He felt giddy….

With a start Scott woke up in bed. He glanced around the darkened bedroom and realised that he'd been asleep. He ran a hand across his face as if trying to wipe the dream away.

The girl had been real enough. Twelve hours earlier he had rescued her and her family from a supermarket with a collapsed roof. But as for the conversation between them, there just hadn't been one. The girl's mother had told her daughter to "Say thank you to the nice International Rescue Man," but the child had hidden behind her mother's legs and, if she had said thank you, it had been lost in the surrounding noise of the rescue site.

Three wishes, eh? Scott shook his head at how bizarre his dream had been. Perhaps Grandma was right, perhaps he shouldn't eat cheese before bed. Scott glanced at the bedside clock and saw it was 5.32am. He considered trying to get more sleep but felt uneasy at the thought of what he might dream about. Get up and do something, Scott Tracy.